Thursday, April 12, 2007

Author, Satirist Kurt Vonnegut Dies at Age 84

NEW YORK -- In books such as "Slaughterhouse-Five ," "Cat's Cradle," and "Hocus Pocus," Kurt Vonnegut mixed the bitter and funny with a touch of the profound. Vonnegut, regarded by many critics as a key influence in shaping 20th-century American literature, died Wednesday at 84. He had suffered brain injuries after a recent fall at his Manhattan home, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.

Vonnegut's more than a dozen books, short stories, essays and plays contained elements of social commentary, science fiction and autobiography.

In a statement, Norman Mailer hailed Vonnegut as "a marvelous writer with a style that remained undeniably and imperturbably his own. ... I would salute him our own Mark Twain.""He was sort of like nobody else," said another fellow author, Gore Vidal. "Kurt was never dull."